Digicel Guyana Inc for the seventh consecutive year has been declared the best float in the large category during Guyana’s 44th Republic Anniversary National Costume and Float Parade on Sunday, by the Mash Secretariat.
The results were released on Tuesday by the Mash Committee and from all indications; they were definitely not a surprise especially to those who lined the streets of Georgetown to witness the parade, since it was evident that Digicel Guyana Inc had the largest, most uniformed, and well-decked out costume band.
On the day of the event, its public relations officer, Vidya Sanchara, was optimistic that the company would have copped the top prize. She said this year Digicel came out with the intention of copping the prize, while reiterating that it had close to 400 revellers.
The pink and gold costumes and floats were designed by Olympia Small Sonaram and that in itself was a winning note. The telecommunications company also copped the first prize for the medium semi-costume band and the best male individual prize. Region Five and the Health Ministry tied for second place.
Following closely behind was the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry in the full costume band segment. It was also adjudged the best non-commercial float.
The Tourism Ministry copped top honours in the medium full-costume band category, while the Labour Ministry came in second and the Amerindian Affairs Ministry took the third spot.
In the small band category, the Education Ministry came out victorious followed by GT Recyclers and the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry respectively.
The People’s Progressive Party won the semi-costume large category and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) placed second.
The Amerindian Affairs Ministry copped both the king and queen titles, with the female individual title going to the Tourism Ministry. In the regional competitions, Region Three revelled their way to the top followed by Region Four and Region Six in second and third respectively.
Region Five was the only entry in the small category band in the regional competition, thus it was awarded the first place. Slingshot’s was the only animal-drawn float. For the individual pieces in the regional competition, the queen title went to Region Three, while Region Four was adjudged the king and also had the best male costume.
Meanwhile, Melissa “Vanilla” Roberts copped the title of Road March Queen with her tune “Yada Yada”. This is the fourth year she has copped the title. In 2007, she won with “Queen of the Band” while in 2008, she was victorious with “High” and in 2010, she copped the title with “Rude”.
She has taken over the title from Adrian Dutchin who won it in 2013 with “Jook”.
